Today turned into a bit of a marathon kind of day. We woke up in Stockholm at the Salvation Army conference center and we checked into the hotel in Copenhagen around midnight. In between we traveled something like 762 km/473 miles (according to Google Maps). For those of you back in Chicago, it's possible to fly from Chicago to Copenhagen in less time than it took us to drive from Stockholm. That just gives you an idea of the distance we covered today... it's really not a complaint.
We stopped at Holmgrens (http://www.holmgrensbil.se/) automobile dealership in Jönköping for lunch. Other than the occasional free hot dog lunch some of us get from car dealers from time to time (and the one guy that actually works in a dealership) I doubt many of us have eaten lunch at a car dealer. But this was no ordinary car dealer. They carry 5 manufacuturers or so and one of the executives is a Salvationist. So, he'd made arrangements for a very nice lunch which they called "flaming love". At least that was how it translated. It was a good lunch but it looked more like mashed potatoes and some kind of bacon meat course. Very nice and welcome stop about half way between Stockholm and Ystad.
We got back on the coach to drive the rest of the way to Ystad a nice little town on the water front. We first went to the corps to change into our uniforms and have a snack before going to the Maria Church where we played our last concert in Sweden. The Maria church has some parts of it that were built in the 1200's. In other words very old and very ornate. A number of burials have taken place in the floor of the church. Now those of you that follow Brian Allan know what he meant when he said it was cool.
The crowd was good although not as large as in other places. But they were very receptive. Then we returned to the corps for supper before saying goodbye to our host Lars-Otto Ljungholm. He was staying overnight in Ystad before making his way (via train?) back to Stockholm.
In Ystad we picked up our host for the Danish part of the tour, Erik Silfverberg. Most Salvation Army bandsmen will have played his music from their earliest days.
The trip from Ystad to Copenhagen was just over an hour and very uneventful. For those who wonder about such things Sweden and Denmark are connected via a bridge and a tunnel. We took the bridge. We've checked into the hotel and after a good night of rest will be ready to see something of Copenhagen tomorrow.
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